


Baby talk and homecooking

by Julie_Anne



Series: Through the wars [2]
Category: Maurice (1987), Maurice - E. M. Forster
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 14:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9823751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julie_Anne/pseuds/Julie_Anne
Summary: Just everyday life, with Baby and a bit of cooking.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I got the Malta idea from Lilliburlero. Also the notion of Maurice doing some sort of shady business things...  
> It's my first try at this kind of writting, so I hope I did it right.  
> Just a bit of home cosiness...

Alec went out to work. The Clinic had the same inhuman schedules all hospitals and alike seemed to have. Maurice was glad he wasn’t doing that kind of work anymore. He worked from home.

They had been in Malta for a little more than two years. It was a good thing he could work from home, for now they had baby Julie and she needed looking after. Of course Giovanna would have been only too glad to do it, but Maurice would not have that. She helped a good deal, but he was the actual «mother» as Alec put it.

It was really hot, he’d worked all morning, making his somewhat shady transactions over the telephone, had a huge lunch and was falling asleep in the patio when Giovanna found him:

\- Go to bed… - she advised him – It’s too hot for one of your «digestive walks». Have a nap, you’re tired.

He stretched but followed her advice. He went up the two flights to the rooms, checked on Baby who was sleeping like an angel and dropped on their bed. He knew he would wake up if Julie as much as whimpered, but this was the long afternoon nap and she would not stir before five.

The house was quiet for hours. Maurice and Julie slept soundly. Giovanna, after washing the lunch dishes was rocking gently on her chair in the cool patio, knitting a minute jumper for Julie. Her two older boys were at school and Santo, the youngest, was with her mother-in-law.

At five o’clock, sharp, Julie whined. Maurice woke up and went to the nursery to fetch her.

\- There’s my girl. Let’s take a close look at this very heavy nappy, shall we?

He cleaned and changed the baby, dropped the wet nappy into the laundry bucket, and carried Julie downstairs for her afternoon meal. Giovanna had the bottle warmed and ready, so he sat on the rocking chair feeding the little girl, while talking to her in his soft, soothing voice:

\- Here’s baby Julie, having her bottle and drinking it all. In no time she’s going to be the prettiest little girl in town, and the cleverest too.

Giovanna laughed:

\- It’s a good thing she doesn’t understand a word you’re saying, or she would turn a nasty and conceited little monster!

After the bottle and the burping ritual, he had a big rug on the patio and a few overstuffed pillows, because Julie was beginning to sit propped against them, and played with her telling her some silly story of his own making, complete with funny voices, noises and gestures to make her laugh. It was quite a sight, that big man who spent his mornings talking on the phone with unsavoury people and making shady and somewhat risky trading, lying on a rug and playing with a baby.

\- There was once a beautiful baby princess who lived in a very high castle.

The little girl held the man’s fingers and tried to pull herself up with the funniest noises in baby talk.

\- Of course she was very strong and fit and all baby monsters were terribly afraid of her.

He made a few noises in baby talk himself, pretending to sound like the poor frightened baby monsters.

\- Then, one day a big, big spider appeared on the castle.

His right hand mimicked the huge spider and Julie let out the sweetest bursts of baby laughter looking at the «spider».

\- It was a mean spider and it tried to attack the princess, going up her fat little leg…

And Maurice’s hand, the «spider», crept up the tiny leg, making Julie laugh even more.

\- The princess pretended she was not frightened, as she was a brave little thing, but she was actually terrified of that mean beast. So she called out for a hero to save her.

He rubbed his nose on the baby’s fat tummy. She screamed in delight, wiggling her small legs and pulling his hair.

\- A handsome prince heard her cries and hastened to save her. He caught the mean spider and squished it to death.

His left hand strangled the «spider», and the mean monster fell on the rug.

\- Afterwards, there was a great party to celebrate the death of the horrendous beast, and the prince tickled the baby princess until she was all red in the face with laughter.

All the stories ended up the same way. Giovanna picked the baby, laughing herself:

\- And then the little princess wet her nappy again with all that laughter and had to be changed before going out for her stroll with her fairy one-thing-or-the-other…

She took out Julie for an outing in her pram, to have fresh air and sunlight, and would bring the boys home with her on the way back.

\- Don’t hurry back, girls! I’ll cook dinner…

\- _Pasta al ragú_ then – added Giovanna, since it was the only thing Maurice had learned to cook, so far – Fine by me. Everybody likes it.

As soon as they left he equipped himself with a big white apron and opened his recipe notebook to recall the essentials.

\- Five big onions and five cloves of garlic.

He peeled and chopped them quite thinly. The first time he had done that under Giovanna’s supervision he had complained of the smell it left in his hands.

\- Now, I’m going to teach you something you ought to have learned from your mother if men were brought up the way they should.

\- My mother never cooked, I dare say… - he answered.

\- Then learn it from me: you can wash away the smell with half a lemon. But don’t do it before you find out what Alec thinks about it. My husband liked it a lot. – she had winked at him.

The thing was that Alec liked it too. «Your hands smell like home cooking! I could eat you whole!»

The chopped onions and garlic cloves were in the big pan. He lit the gas cooker and added five tablespoons of olive oil. The smell was wonderful. The ancient Greeks had the correct notion; olive oil was a divine gift. While the onion was cooking over a low fire, he chopped the meat to little pieces, as small as he managed and added them to the hot pan. Then he diced the tomatoes, eight big ones and dropped them over the semi-cooked meat and he gave everything a few turns with a wooden spoon. He covered the pan and let it simmer for a while. In the meantime, he cleaned the knives and the cutting board. Then he measured a glass of white wine and refreshed the _ragú_ , giving it a further turn with the spoon.

\- Salt, pepper, the herbs… oh, bother, what are these things called?

He lit the other fire to boil the water in the biggest pot they had, used for pasta and for soup. Keeping an eye on the sauce, he cleared the big table and set it for the children who always had dinner earlier. By the time they arrived, he was draining the cooked pasta. Giovanna approved the cooking and took care of the boys, while he carried a very tired and sleepy Julie up the stairs. Alec was showering when Maurice entered the bathroom with Julie for her bath.

\- May we enter, Da? – asked Maurice when they were already in.

Alec got out of the bath and wrapped himself up in a towel before answering.

\- Well, if it were only you, big man, I’d be forced to deny permission, but since you are carrying the prettiest little princess… oh, I guess it’s fine. I’m leaving anyway. All I want is a drink, dinner and a full night’s sleep! I’m done in.

But he stayed and held Julie while Maurice set up her little bathtub on it’s high legs and filled it up with warm water, and then helped undress her, a difficult task because of the minuscule buttons on her clothes. He put on his bathrobe and helped with the bathing of the squirming little girl.

\- She’s so sweet when she laughs…

With Julie bathed and safely wrapped in a fluffy pink towel they took her to their room, and Alec dressed for dinner. Maurice got the baby into her pyjamas and put her to bed in the nursery.

\- Didn’t even had to tell her a story, she was sound asleep in my arms.

Alec kissed him.

\- Have I told you how wonderful you are? – he nuzzled into his neck, inhaling – Hmmm, you smell so good. _Pasta_ for dinner?

Maurice grunted an affirmative, kissing him back.


End file.
